Biographical Notes

Listed below are some of the more important authors and figures
mentioned in the Vindications as well as some of the individuals
who featured prominently in Wollstonecraft's life. Their biograph-
ical details are presented in the light of their interest to readers
of Wollstonecraft. Those names not followed by dates have an
entry of their own. The Vindication of the Rights of Men and the
Vindication of the Rights of Woman are abbreviated as VM and VW
respectively. The Female Reader (1789) is shortened to Reader, while
An Historical and Moral Vieto of the French Revolution (1794) and
Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and
Denmark (1796) will be referred to as A Moral Viets and A Short
Residence respectively. All references to her reviews are to those in
the Analytical Reoiem.
ARISTOTLE (384-322 BC). Greek philosopher, who, along with
his teacher Plato, gave Western intellectual history its distinctive
timbre. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, however, his
philosophy became associated with scholasticism and hence synony-
mous with all that was discredited about metaphysics.
AUGUSTUS, see Octavian.
BACON, FRANCIS, Baron Verulam, Viscount St Albans (1561-
1626). English statesman and philosopher, whose critique of Aristot-
elianism and advocacy of induction as the proper basis for exper-
imental knowledge and the discovery of the laws governing nature
shaped the whole of the Enlightenment project. 'The father of
experimental philosophy', his works include Two Bookes of the Pro-
ficience and Advancement of Learning (1605), Instauratio magna, which
included Novum organum (1620), De Augmentis Scientiarum (1623)
and New Atlantis (1624; pub. 1627). Wollstonecraft shows her
familiarity with his Essaies the first ten of which were published in
1597. She commented on his wish that travellers would keep a
journal in one of her reviews tAnaiytica! Reoieio, vol. VII, art. VII,
October, 1790), one that she helped to fulfil in A Short Residence.
BARBAULD, ANNA LAETITIA, Mrs (nee Aikin) (1743-1825). English
poet and political writer. Educated at the Warrington Dissenting

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 Biographical notes

Academy, she published Poems and (with her brother John Aikin)
Miscellaneous Pieces in Prose (1773); Address to the Opposers of the
Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts (1790); Epistle to William
Wilberforce (179I) and other works, including The British Novelists
(1810). Wollstonecraft included several of her writings in her Reader
(1789) and praised her writings for children as well as her poetry
on several occasions.
BERKENHOUT, JOHN (1730?-91). Soldier, physician, and man of
letters. He published Outlines of Natural History of Great Britain
(1769-71), Biographia Literaria (1771), and several other works.
BLACKSTONE, SIR WILLIAM (1723-80). The first Vinerian Pro-
fessor of English Law at Oxford, famous for his Commentaries on
the Laws of England (1765-9). Burke cites his edition of Magna
Charta (1759) in the Reflections in support of his claim that our
liberties are 'an entailed inheritance'. He argues that Blackstone and
Sir Edward Coke, along with other legal commentators, all link
the Magna Charta (1215) of King John (I167-12I6) to the charter
issued by Henry I (1068-1135).
BOSWELL, JAMES (1740-1795). Scottish advocate and writer. His
friendship with Samuel Johnson provided the basis of his most
famous works, The Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides with Samuel
Johnson, LL.D (1785) and The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D (1791).
Wollstonecraft compares the characters of the two men in vw.
BURKE, EDMUND (1729-1797). British statesman and political
philosopher most famous for Reflections on the Revolution in France
(1790). Born in Dublin, the son of a Protestant attorney and a
Catholic mother, he studied at Trinity College, Dublin, before
moving to London to read for the bar. 1756 saw the publication
of A Vindication of Natural Society and an influential treatise, A
Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and
the Beautiful. In 1765 Burke became private secretary to the Mar-
quess of Rockingham (1730-82), First Lord of the Treasury. The
following year, he became the member for Wendover. He supported
the Rockingham Whigs and followed Rockingham into opposition
in 1767. In 1768 he purchased an estate in Buckinghamshire which
placed him in continual financial difficulty. In 1769 he published
two pamphlets, Obsertations on a late Publication Intituled 'The Present

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 Biographical notes

State of the Nation' and in 1770 Thoughts on the Cause of Present

Discontents. He went to France in 1773 where he caught sight of
the Queen. The following year, he and Charles James Fox (1749-
1806), Lord North's great rival, became friends. Together they
opposed Lord North's (1732-92) administration and Burke attacked
the government's American policy in his speeches 'On American
Taxation' (1774) and 'Conciliation with the Colonies' (1775). From
1774 to 1780, he represented Bristol, and from 1780 to 1794
Malton. He was paymaster of the forces when Rockingham came
into office in 1782, but the latter's death the same year was a
severe blow to Burke's prospects. Paymaster again under William
Cavendish, Duke of Portland (1738-1809), Burke was subjected
to ridicule in the House of Commons after 1784 when he returned
to the opposition. Wollstonecraft's complex attack on Burke includes
references to his alleged conduct during the insanity of George
III, when Burke was reputedly promised a Cabinet post, if he
helped to secure the interest of the then Prince of Wales. She
also refers to his long-winded speeches and the derision they
elicited in the House in the VM. Burke's defence of Ireland's
commercial rights and his endeavours to impeach Warren Hastings
(1732-1818) for his conduct of the administration of India made
him many enemies. So did his advocacy of Catholic emancipation
in Ireland, and indeed what was deemed by many of his one-time
friends (as well as enemies) to be his total inconsistency in reacting
so strongly against the French revolutionaries when he had
responded sympathetically to the case put forward by the American
colonists. (See also Marie Antoinette and Charlotte.)
BUTLER, SAMUEL (1612-80). English satirist, author of Hudibras
(1663-8).
CATHERINE II (1729-96), the Great. Empress of Russia, following
the dethronement of her husband Peter III in 1762. Ruthless
woman of great ability and strength. She was a friend to a number
of philosophes, especially Denis Diderot (1713-84).
CERBERUS. In Greek mythology, a monstrous dog with three
heads, the watchdog of Hades.
CHAPONE, HESTER, Mrs (nee Mulso) (1727-1801). Well-
respected author of Letters on the Improvement of the Mind (1773),
included in Wollstonecraft's Reader.

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 Biographical notes

CHARLOTTE SOPHIA (1744-1818). Queen of Great Britain as

the wife of George III (173 8-1820). They had fifteen children.
She was well-liked. Wollstonecraft draws attention to the contrast
between Burke's passionate critique of the French revolutionaries'
actions against Marie Antoinette and his own treatment of Queen
Charlotte when George III was declared insane. She refers to his
arguments related to limiting financial provision for the Queen in
that period. Burke denied accusations of lese-majeste.
CHESTERFIELD, PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, Earl of (1694-
1773). English statesman and literary figure, he was lord lieutenant
of Ireland (1745-6) and secretary of state (1746-8). His Letters to
his [natural] Son (1774) were followed by Letters to his Godson and
Successor (pub. 1890). Although Wollstonecraft spoke disapprovingly
of the advice contained in them on how to make one's way as a
man of the world, she included a piece by him on 'Indolence and
want of thought' in her Reader.
CICERO, MARCUS TULLIUS (106-43 BC). Roman statesman and
philosopher known for his oratory. Wollstonecraft mentions his De
Officiis (On Duties, 44 BC), a classic of Stoic moral philosophy.
COWPER, WILLIAM (1731-1800). English poet, whose works,
especially, The Task (1785), make up several entries in the Reader.
DAY, THOMAS (1748-89). English author of The Dying Negro
(1773) and History of Sandford and Merton (3 vols. 1783-89). Woll-
stonecraft thought a perusal of the latter would impart more lessons
to the young than all the sermons past and future iAnalytical Review,
vol. IV, art. LXXV, June 1789).
DUBOIS, GUILLAUME (1656-1723). French cardinal and states-
man, notorious for his greed and debauchery. During the infancy
of Louis XV, he was councillor of state and later chief minister
under the due d'Orleans, Regent from 1715-23. The bed of justice
(lit de justice) which Wollstonecraft mentions in connection with
Dubois, was the name given to solemn sessions of the King in
parliament (they were so called from the old name for the throne
on which the King sat). She was presumably referring to the session
of the parlement in 1715 (not strictly a lit de justice) at which the
due d'Orleans secured full powers as Regent (with Dubois as his
adviser) contrary to the intentions of Louis XIV.

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 Biographical notes

ELOISA, normally 'Heloise' (c.1098-1164). Brilliant French girl,

she eloped with her tutor, the philosopher and theologian Pierre
Abelard (1°79-1142), whom she secretly married. Separated shortly
thereafter, they both entered religious orders. Their famous corre-
spondence is the inspiration for Pope's 'Epistle of Eloisa to Abelard'
(1717). Though there are important differences between the famous
medieval lovers and those depicted in his novel, Julie, ou La Nouvelle
Heloise (1761), Rousseau clearly establishes a connection between
the two couples in thus calling his heroine.

EMILIUS or EMILE, see Rousseau.

EMPRESS OF RUSSIA, see Catherine the Great.

EON DE BEAUMONT, CHARLES GENEVIEVE TIMOTHE D'

(1728-1810). The 'Chevalier d'Eon' or 'Madame d'Eon', French
diplomat at the embassy in London from 1762 to his recall in
1774. He returned to London in 1785 assuming the character and
dress of a woman; his gender was only ascertained upon his death.
FABRICIUS, GALUS LUSCINUS (fl. early 3rd century BC). Roman
ambassador and general, renowned for his honesty and frugality.

FORDYCE, JAMES (1720-96). Scottish presbyterian minister.

FORSTER, JOHANN REINHOLD (1729-98). German traveller and

botanist, who accompanied Captain Cook (1728-79) on his second
voyage (1772-5) and published Observations Made During a Voyage
Round the World (1778).

GAY, JOHN (1685-1732). English poet, famous for his Fables

(1727), one of which Wollstonecraft included in her Reader, and
The Beggar's Opera (1728).

GENLIS, STEPHANIE FELICITE DUCREST DE ST AUBIN, com-

tesse de (1746-1830). Highly prolific French writer. She was
governess to the future King Louis-Philippe (1773-185°). Woll-
stonecraft gave extracts of her works in Reader and first praised Le
Theatre de l'education (1779), but later reviews express mixed views
about Genlis's advice on education, not least because it was
intended for the aristocracy, but also because Wollstonecraft initially

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 Biographical notes

hoped the French Revolution would change the moral circumstances

of mankind and render such advice redundant.
G O D W I N , MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT, see William Godwin.
G O D W I N , WILLIAM (1756-1836). English political writer and
novelist. He heard Price deliver his sermon On the Love of One's
Country (1789) and conceived of his Enquiry Concerning Political
Justice, and its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness (1793), after
the publication of Paine's Rights of Man (1791). Through it he
achieved fame and notoriety. His best novel, The Adventures of Caleb
Williams (1794), is a fictional rendition of some of the themes of
the Enquiry, which had attacked the fundamental tenets of natural
law theorists and the legitimacy of political authority. He and
Wollstonecraft met in 1791, but their friendship was not to blossom
until 1796. They kept their separate homes and married only
following the conception of their daughter, Mary Godwin
(1797-1851), the author of Frankenstein (1818), Valperga (1823) and
other works, and wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822).
GORDON, LORD GEORGE (1751-93). English M.P., who was
tried for high treason for having, as president of a Protestant
association, led 50,000 persons to the House of Commons to
present a petition for the repeal of the lifting of some restrictions
on Roman Catholics (2 June 1780). This was followed by five days
of riots, in which many Catholic chapels and private houses were
burnt and which resulted in a very high number of casualties.
Gordon was acquitted, however, and it was only in 1787 that he
was imprisoned for life in Newgate after having been convicted of
libel on Marie Antoinette. He died of gaol fever.
GRAFTON, AUGUSTUS HENRY FITZROY, 3rd Duke of (1735-
181I). English statesman. He held several Cabinet positions under
various prime ministers, including Rockingham (1730-82) and Lord
North (1732-92). He was Chancellor of Cambridge University and
his Hints, CSc. Submitted to the serious Attention of the Clergy, Nobility
and Gentry, Newly Assembled, by a Layman, a Friend to the True
Principles of the Constitution in Church and State, and to the Civil
and Religious Liberty (1789) was commented on by Price. Burke
ridiculed the latter's recommendation, as he saw it, that those in
any way dissatisfied with the form of worship practised by the
Church of England should set up their own churches.

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 Biographical notes

GREGORY, J O H N (1724-73). Scottish physician. He taught at

Aberdeen, then London, before becoming Professor of Medicine
at Edinburgh in 1766. A member of Scottish literary circles, his
writings include a 'Comparative View of the State and Faculties
of Man with those of the Animal World' (1766) and 'A Father's
Legacy to his Daughters' (1774), parts of which Wollstonecraft
included in her Reader. She found his view that women could turn
to religion in time of need unconvincing as she believed piety
should be nurtured in all circumstances in order to be genuine.
She took the same work to task in VW 'with affectionate respect',
again in relation to Gregory's stand on religion as well as his
position on the place of manners in a woman's upbringing.

HELVETIUS, CLAUDE-ADRIEN (1715-71). French philosopher.

In 1758, Helvetius published De l'Esprit, which argues that sensation
is the ultimate source of all mental activity, that the human mind
does not essentially differ from that of animals, that 'normally
constituted' individuals have equal mental abilities and that differ-
ences between them are only due to environmental factors. These
views were expounded in De I'Homme, de ses facultes intellectuelles et
de son education (1772). Denis Diderot's (1713-1784) Refutation,
written in the mid-1770S, ridiculed all aspects of Helvetius's
thought, from the epistemology and analysis of the nature of the
mind to the boundless confidence in the powers of education and
the account of man as entirely subservient to the pain-pleasure
principle. Helvetius influenced the Ideologues and Jeremy Bentham
(1748-1832).
HERVEY, JAMES (1714-58). English devotional writer, whose
Meditations and Contemplations (1746-7) went through numerous
editions.
HOADLY, BENJAMIN (1676-1761). English bishop successively of
Bangor (1715), Hereford (1721), Salisbury (1723), and Winchester
(1734); he called for religious toleration.
HUME, DAVID (1711-76). Scottish philosopher and historian. His
A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40) and Enquiry Concerning the
Principles of Morals (1751) are lasting contributions to philosophy,
but it was his Essays Moral and Political (1741-2) and his six-volume
History of England (1754-62) which received most attention and

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 Biographical notes

praise during his life-time. Wollstonecraft uses the History to contra-

dict Burke's view of the Constitution as the product of the wisdom
of our ancestors, by claiming that it was nothing more than an
accumulation of ad hoc responses to the political difficulties various
English kings had found themselves in.
IMLAY, GILBERT (c. 1754-1828). American merchant and author
of A Topographical Description of The Western Territory of North
America (1792) and The Emigrants (1793). Wollstonecraft met him
during her stay in Paris in 1793. Though she passed as his wife,
if only for reasons of the safety which Americans enjoyed during
the Terror, they did not marry and he was the cause of her
greatest unhappiness, initially through his relative indifference, then
infidelity, and finally his total rejection of her. Their daughter,
Fanny, was born in May 1794. Wollstonecraft's first attempted
suicide in May 1795 followed the discovery of his unfaithfulness.
Persuaded to act as his agent and wife, Wollstonecraft set off with
Fanny and a French maid, Marguerite, for what was to be a
five-month journey through Scandinavia to establish the where-
abouts of one of his ships, which had broken the British blockade
on trade with Revolutionary France. She found Imlay living with
an actress on her return and this led to her second attempted
suicide in October 1795. Fanny Imlay herself committed suicide
in 1816.
INKLE, THOMAS. A London merchant mentioned by Richard
Steel (1672-1729) in The Spectator, II, as the latter relates the
History of Inkle and Yarico. Inkle travelled to America to make
his fortune. Despite her kindness to him and the help he received
from her, Inkle sold Yarico, an Indian woman, as a slave; when
she told him that she was expecting a child by him his only
response was to raise her price. This History is included in the
Reader.
JOHNSON, J O S E P H (1738-1809). Publisher. Thomas Christie
(1761-96) and he founded the Analytical Review in May 1788,
which ran until June 1799. Wollstonecraft was one of its major
contributors and she also became involved with editing it for a
period. Johnson was her publisher and loyal friend.
J O H N S O N , SAMUEL, Doctor (1709-84). English man of letters,
poet, critic and lexicographer. Well known for his wit and much

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 Biographical notes

admired by Wollstonecraft, not least for his Journey to the Western

Isles (1775), he started the Rambler (1750), contributed to the
Gentleman's Magazine and the Universal Chronicle. His writings
include a tragedy, Irene (staged in 1749), Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia
(1759), A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), Lives of the
Poets (1779-81), and an edition of Shakespeare (1765).
JUNO. In Roman religion, the goddess of women, childbirth, and
marriage, later identified with the Greek goddess Hera, and wife
of Jupiter, later identified with the Greek Zeus, ruler of the gods.
KAMES, HENRY H O M E , Lord (1696-1782). Scottish philosopher,
jurist, and author of Essays on Morality (175I), Elements of Criticism
(1762), and Sketches of the History of Man (1774).
KANT, IMMANUEL (1724-1804). German philosopher whose
influential books include Kritik der reinen Vernunft (Critique of Pure
Reason, 1781), Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten (Fundamental
Principles of the Metaphysic of Ethics, 1785) and Kritik der praktischen
Vernunft (Critique of Practical Reason, 1788). Wollstonecraft alludes
to his writings on aesthetics, and in particular to his Kritik der
Urteilskraft (Critique of Judgement, 1790) and his view on the relation-
ship of the understanding and the imagination to the sublime and
the beautiful in Hints and possibly also in VM.
KING OF FRANCE, see Louis XVI.
KNOX, VICESIMUS (1752-1821). Master of Tonbridge School
(1778-1812), his publications include Essays Moral and Literary
(1778) and Elegant Extraas (1789).
LA R O C H E F O U C A U L D , F R A N ~ O I S , duc de (1613-80). French
writer, whose Rejlexions, ou sentences et maximes morales (1665) con-
tinue to be the object of much admiration for their perspicacity
and style.
LAVATER, JOHANN KASPAR (1741-1801). Swiss theologian. His
Physiognomische Fragmente (1775-8), which attempted to make physi-
ognomy into a science, was widely read. His Aussichten in die
Ewigkeit (1768-78) expounded his religious mysticism.
L E I B N I T Z , G O T T F R I E D WILHELM (1646-1716). German poly-
math, who wrote principally in French and Latin. He was the

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 Biographical notes

author of Discours de metaphysique (1686) and Essai de theodicee sur

la bonte de Dieu, la liberte de l'homme et l'origine du mal (1710) and
entered into correspondence with Samuel Clarke (1675-1729) about
various aspects of Newton's conception of the world, including the
extent to which God has to interfere in it beyond the Creation.

LEVASSEUR, THERESE (1721-1801). French housekeeper of

Rousseau. She had five children by him, all of whom he placed
in a foundling hospital. Though she and her mother, who lived
with them for periods of time, did have their own way of imposing
their will on Rousseau, Wollstonecraft refers to the fact that she
remained uneducated and 'unpolished' and Rousseau never treated
her as he did other, mostly upper-class, women in his life, let
alone as an equal.

LOCKE, JOHN (1632-1704). English philosopher who exercised

the greatest influence on the Enlightenment. Each of his three
most famous works are relevant here: Two Treatises of Government
(1690), Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), Some Thoughts
Concerning Education (1693). The first provides Wollstonecraft with
a view of the foundation and nature of natural rights and social
contract; the second is the source of her empiricism; while the
third is responsible for the eighteenth-century awareness of the
importance of educating children from an early age and many of
Wollstonecraft's pedagogical tenets, including the application of the
theory of the association of ideas to educational practices and her
arguments against leaving children in the care of ignorant servants
who fill their minds with superstitious and fantastical notions.

LOUIS XVI (1754-93). Grandson of Louis XV (1710-74) whom

he succeeded as King of France in 1774. He was popular for a
period, but the various and ill-fated attempts made to tackle
France's financial difficulties as well as the power struggle with
and within the nobility undermined his reign and led to the convo-
cation of the States-General on 5 May 1789. The Tiers Etat,
together with some members of the clergy, formed the National
Assembly as a sovereign and constituent power in June. The King's
resistance to its demands and his attempt to regain the upperhand
failed and were followed by the storming of the Bastille on 14
July. On the 5 th and 6th of October Versailles was attacked and

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 Biographical notes

the King and his family were removed to Paris. In June 1791 the
King and Queen tried to escape, but were brought back to Paris.
The King was executed on 21 January 1793.
LUCRETIA (d. c. 510 BC). Roman heroine. She took her life after
she was raped by Sextus Tarquinius. The event led to the expulsion
of the Tarquins from Rome.
MACAULAY, CATHARINE, Mrs (1731-91). English historian and
political radical. Famous for her republican History of England
(1763-83), she wrote a number of political pamphlets, two of which
were replies to Burke, A Treatise on the Immutability of Moral Truth
(1783) and Letters on Education. She acquired notoriety following
her marriage in widowhood to a much younger man. She was one
of the few women Wollstonecraft genuinely admired.
MACKINTOSH, SIR JAMES (1765-1832). Scottish lawyer and
political writer. His Vindiciae Gallicae (1791) is perhaps the most
nuanced reply to Burke's Reflections and is especially interesting
because he had more in common with Burke than probably any
other interlocutor. The extent to which Mackintosh later came
round to Burke's point of view is a matter of dispute, but there
is no doubt that he, like many others, came increasingly to appreci-
ate Burke's insights as the Revolution progressed.
MARIE ANTOINETTE, JOSEPHE JEANNE (1755-93). Queen of
France as the wife of Louis XVI. The daughter of Maria Theresa
(1717-80) and Francis I (1708-65), she was very unpopular at
Court and in the country more generally for what was deemed,
though by no means always fairly, her extravagance, her continued
support for the interests of her native Austria over those of France,
her flouting of etiquette, her opposition to financial reforms, and
her manipulation of her weak husband. She died bravely by the
guillotine on the 16 October 1793. Wollstonecraft was incensed by
Burke's infatuation with the French Queen as disclosed in the
description he gives of her in the Reflections.
MARIUS, GAlUS (157-86 BC). Roman general. He competed with
Sulla (138-78 BC) for the command against Mithridates (d. 63
BC) and had to flee to Africa, where the governor sent him an
order to leave the country; he is said to have told the messenger:

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 Biographical notes

'Tell the. praetor that you have seen Gaius Marius sitting, a fugitive,
amid the ruins of Carthage.'
MILTON, JOHN (1608-74). English Puritan poet and polemicist.
In the 1640S he wrote for religious toleration and freedom of the
press as well as on divorce and English history. His Paradise
Lost (1667) is not only one of the texts most frequently cited by
Wollstonecraft, but Milton is one of her principal interlocutors in
the VW as she challenged his portrayal of woman in that poem.
This said, she had included the latter in her Reader and she
continued to draw on its imagery.

M O N B O D D O , JAMES BURNETT, Lord (1714-99). Scottish judge

and anthropologist, he wrote Of the Origin and Progress of Language
(6 vols., 1773-92).
NECKER, JACQUES (1732-18°4). French statesman and financier.
His directorship of finance came to an end after the publication
of his Compte Rendu (1781), giving details of the state's finances.
He was recalled to office in September 1788, dismissed and re-
instated again shortly thereafter. He retired to Geneva in September
1790. Wollstonecraft translated, rather freely, his De l'importance
des opinions religieuses (1788). She did not think much of the work,
as she did not think Necker up to this level of reflection. While
her opinion of him as an economist was better, she believed his
vanity got in the way of his judgement and preferred Turgot (1727-
8I), his predecessor in office, to him.

OCTAVIAN (63 BC-AD 14). Grandnephew of Julius Caesar, named

Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus after his adoption by Caesar, and
later known as Augustus, the first of the Roman Emperors.
PAINE, THOMAS (1737-18°9). English political theorist. He lived
in America from 1774, published Common Sense (1776), and argued
in favour of republicanism and American independence. Back in
England he wrote what is now the most famous reply to Burke's
Reflections, The Rights of Man (Part I, 1791, Part II, 1792). He fled
to France, was elected to the National Convention, imprisoned
during the Terror, and returned to America, where his Age of
Reason (Part I, 1794, Part II, 1795, Part III, 1807), a defence of
deism, had cost him popularity and friends.

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 Biographical notes

P I O Z Z I , HESTER LYNCH, Mrs [nee Salisbury; Mrs Thrale by

her first marriage] (1741-1821). English woman of letters. Her
long friendship with Johnson ended on her second marriage to an
Italian musician. Her most famous works are Anecdotes of the Late
Samuel Johnson (1786) and her edition of Johnson's Letters (1788).
Wollstonecraft was also familiar with Observations and Reflections,
made in the Course of a Journey through France, Italy and Germany
(1789), which she reviewed.
PLATO (c. 427-347 BC). Greek philosopher, whose rationalist
epistemology remains one of the most influential. Wollstonecraft
thinks of him primarily in relation to his view that rational contem-
plation of the good is the highest form of human activity.
POPE, ALEXANDER (1688-1744). English poet and satirist. His
translation of Homer's (850-800 BC) Iliad (1715-20) and Odyssey
(1725-6) made him financially independent. His satires on English
life and literary culture include The Dunciad (1728) and The Rape of
the Lock (1714). Wollstonecraft cites An Essay on Criticism (17I I) and
An Essay on Man (1733-4), his more philosophical works, throughout
her writings and takes issue in VfV with his depiction of women in
Of the Characters of Women: An Epistle to a Lady (1735).

PRICE, RICHARD (1723-91). Dissenting minister and moral and

political writer. A preacher at Newington Green, where Woll-
stonecraft first met him, he wrote Review of the Principal Questions
and Difficulties in Morals (1758), which makes reason central to moral
judgments, Importance of Christianity (1766), Northampton Mortality
Tables, esc. (1769), Appeal on the National Debt (1771), and Obser-
vations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, and the War with America
(1776). His Discourse on the Love of Our Country (1789) was delivered
at the Old Jewry on 4 November 1789 and published by the
Revolution Society together with a Congratulatory Address from
the Society to the National Assembly in France. It prompted Burke
to write his Refiections on the Revolution in France (1790).

PRIESTLEY, J O S E P H (1733-18°4). British scientist and moral and

political philosopher. He taught at the Dissenting Academy of
Warrington (1761-4), became a Fellow of the Royal Society in
1766 and was a friend of Lord Shelburne (1737-18°5). He was
believed to be a materialist and an atheist and had been the subject

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 Biographical notes

of controversy before his reply to Burke's Reflections caused further

resentment against him. His house and laboratory were attacked
by a mob in 1791. In 1794 he moved to America.
PRIOR, MATTHEW (1664-1721). English poet and diplomat.
QUEEN OF FRANCE, see Marie Antoinette.
QUEEN OF GREAT BRITAIN, see Charlotte.
REBEKAH. Wife of Isaac. According to Genesis 27, she helped
her second and favourite son, Jacob, pretend he was his elder
brother, Esau, and thereby cheat the latter of his rightful
inheritance.
RICHARD II (1367-1400). He succeeded his grandfather Edward
III (1312-77) in 1377, but given his age the government was
entrusted to a council of twelve, which came under John of Gaunt's
(1340-99) control. He intervened during the Peasants' Revolt of
1381 and, on the death of the rebels' leader, called on them to
see him as their head. Deposed and imprisoned in 1399, he was
(probably) murdered the following year.
RICHARDSON, SAMUEL (1689-1761). English novelist. His three
novels Pamela (1740), Clarissa (1747-8) and Sir Charles Grandison
(1753-4) were highly popular. Wollstonecraft included a short pass-
age from the latter in her Reader, but was critical on more than
one occasion of the nature of the novelist's portrayal of rape.
ROBERTSON, WILLIAM (1721-93). Scottish historian, author of
History of Scotland (1759), History of Charles V (1769), and History
of America (1777).
ROUSSEAU, JEAN-JACQUES (1712-78). Genevan political theor-
ist, composer, and literary figure. Famous as the author of Discours
sur l'inigaliti (1755), a critique of the civilizing process as based
on the creation and satisfaction of artificial and insatiable needs
and fostering inequitable societies; La Nouvelle Heloise (1761), an
epistolary novel in which considerations of duty override those of
passion and in which the dying heroine confesses that though she
has been a faithful wife and dutiful mother, her true love was for
St Preux, her lover in her youth; Du Contrat Social (1762), in
which Rousseau explains how men can remain free in a society

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 Biographical notes

ruled by laws which are the expression of the will of the community
taken as an organic whole; and Emile (1762), a most influential
work on education, exhorting mothers to breast-feed their children,
describing an ideal mode of education for a fictitious boy, Emile,
and notorious for basing the education of his wife-to-be, Sophie,
on entirely opposite principles. This point was stressed by Woll-
stonecraft, who otherwise admired Rousseau. The above-mentioned
works are those which are most important in relation to her works,
though mention should also be made of the Confessions (1781-8)
and the Reveries (1782), both autobiographical works. Wollstonecraft
reviewed a number of books by and about Rousseau and was more
familiar than most people with the various aspects of his thought.
(See Levasseur).
SAPPHO (c. 650 BC). Greek woman poet whose lyrics are renowned
for their passion and beauty.
SALZMANN, CHRISTIAN GOTTHILF (1744-1811). German
theologian and moral philosopher.
SHAKESPEARE, WILLIAM (1564-1616). English poet and play-
wright. Wollstonecraft makes extensive references to his plays
throughout her writings and includes extracts from King Lear,
Macbeth, Cymbeline, and other plays in her Reader.
SIDNEY, SIR P H I L I P (1554-86). English statesman and poet.
His Arcadia (1590) was a mixture of prose romance and pastoral
eclogues.
SMELLIE, WILLIAM (1740-95). Scottish man of letters, printer,
and naturalist. Wollstonecraft reviewed The Philosophy of Natural
History (1790) as well as a pamphlet, The Sexes of Plants Vindicated:
in a Letter to Mr William Smellie; Containing a Refutation of his
Arguments against the Sexes of Plants, and Remarks on Certain Passages
of his Philosophy of Natural History (1790), which she found
convincing.
S M I T H , ADAM (1723-90). Scottish philosopher and political econ-
omist, who gave a detailed account of the potential merits of a
free market economy in The Wealth ofNations (1776). Wollstonecraft
refers to his assessment of the impact of repetitive work on the
mind of those who perform it in A Moral View. She was inspired

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 Biographical notes

by his analysis of the mechanism of sympathy as described in The

Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), as she was by his description of
the rich and powerful which she used to describe women, or at
any rate ladies, in vw. She seems, however, to have been uncon-
vinced by Smith's account of the impartial spectator within us as
the foundation of our moral sentiments, arguing that we should
look at our actions as God does, instead of endeavouring to see
them as they appear to others.

S M I T H , CHARLOTTE, Mrs (nee Turner) (1749-1806). English

writer. An extremely prolific and successful novelist, she was the
author of Emmeline (1788), Desmond (1792), The Old Manor House
(1793), and Marchmont (1796). She challenged contemporary views
of sexual morality and initially supported the French Revolution.

STAEL-HOLSTEIN, ANNE-LOUISE-GERMAINE (nee Necker)

baronne de, (1766-1817). French writer. Wollstonecraft reviewed,
rather unfavourably, Madame de Stael's thoughts on Rousseau's
writings and character in 1789. She thought Stael unequal to the
task.
STEELE, SIR RICHARD (1672-1729). English man of letters and
active Whig. He launched the Tatler (1 708-1I) and the Spectator
(1711—14) with Joseph Addison (1672—1719).
ST PREUX, see Rousseau.

SWEDENBORG, EMANUEL (1688-1772). Swedish mathematician

and man of science. He published on a number of scientific subjects
up to the 173os and 1740s, and on spiritual matters following
mystical experiences, e.g. Heavenly Arcana (1749-56). He did not
attempt to establish a sect, though he has still followers. In the
spring of 1789 Wollstonecraft reviewed an English edition of his
On Marriages in Heaven; and On the Nature of Heavenly Conjugal
Love (1789), which places sex at one end of a continuum leading
to divine love, saying it was unintelligible.

SWIFT, JONATHAN (1667-1745). Anglo-Irish poet and satmst,

His best-known work, Gulliver's Travels (1726), and Miscellanies
(1726) are included in the Reader and also referred to in Wollstone-
craft's other writings.

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 Biographical notes

TALLEYRAND-PERIGORD, CHARLES MAURICE DE, Prince de

Benevent (1754-1838). French statesman and diplomat. He was
Bishop of Autun and represented the clergy at the States-General
of 1789, where he advocated the confiscation of Church property.
Excommunicated in 1791, he was the emissary of the Constituent
Assembly to London in 1792 when Wollstonecraft met him. An
exile in Britain and the United States from 1792 to 1796 when
he returned to France and became Minister of Foreign Affairs.
He was crucial to Napoleon's power, instrumental in the Bourbon
restoration, and one of the most powerful men in France until his
retirement in 1834. Though his Rapport sur l'instruction publique,
fait au nom du Comite de constitution (1791) called for the education
of both the sexes, Wollstonecraft thought he had missed a unique
political opportunity to re-define the relationship between the sexes.
TELEMACHUS. Character in Francois de Salignac de la Mothe
Fenelon's (1651-1715) popular novel, Telemaque (1699). In Emile,
Rousseau has the heroine, Sophie, read the novel and fall in love
with its hero.
THERESA, see Levasseur.
TRIMMER, SARAH, Mrs (1741-1810). English author of Easy
Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature (1782) and The Oeconomy of
Charity (1786).
TULLY, see Cicero.
VOLTAIRE [Francois-Marie Arouet] (1694-1778). French man of
letters. His Lettres Philosophiques (1734), written whilst in exile in
England, praised the island for its liberty, religious toleration and
scientific spirit. He sought to defend victims of intolerance and
waged a war against the Church, though he remained steadfast in
his belief in the social necessity of religions and was inclined
towards Enlightened despotism. In Candide (1759) he ridiculed
what he took to be Leibnitz's optimism. He wrote many plays, as
well as the Elements de la philosophie de Newton (1738), Le Siecle de
Louis XIV (17 51), mentioned in vw, and various other philosophical
works. Wollstonecraft was familiar with a number of his works and
included a piece by him on the discovery of America in her Reader.
W A S H I N G T O N , GEORGE (1732-99). Commander of the Amer-
ican forces and first president of the United States. He retired to

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 Biographical notes

Mount Vernon, the estate on which he had spent some of his

youth, hence Wollstonecraft's reference to him as one who returned
to agriculture after having held high office.
WYCLIFFE, J O H N (c. 1329-84). English reformer. He was a fierce
critic of abuses within the Church, questioned papal authority, and
emphasized the importance of inner faith over formal rituals in his
lectures and in De Eucharistia (1381).
YOUNG, EDWARD (1683-1765). English poet and dramatist,
author of The Complaint, or Night-Thoughts on Life, Death and
Immortality (1742-5), The Universal Passion (1725-8), Busiris, King
of Egypt (1719) and The Revenge (1721), often quoted by Woll-
stonecraft and included in her Reader.

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